Ever since Ren Suo discovered the huge benefits the yellow-haired teenager and his girlfriend gained from the Meal of Desires, he had been thinking of a way for him to eat the meal at the ‘fleeing ghost stall’.
He was not worried about when and where the stall would be set up—as long as he could confirm the location of the stall in the game, Ren Suo would simply head over every night until it appeared.
However, the problem was that Ren Suo had to find a reason for his actions.
Of course, Ren Suo could also dress differently when he headed over, but it was August and the weather was so hot that feces on the street was steaming. Even though it would be during the night, it was still not feasible to wear too many layers of clothing, or the police would certainly be suspicious of him. Who would wear such thick clothing in the middle of the night—was he a programmer who still had to work overtime while running a fever?
Ren Suo also thought of using face transformation abilities, but there were no such abilities in the Knowledge Web.
The abilities sold on the Knowledge Web all had low damage capability, and were mainly used for ‘protecting oneself’ and ‘assisting life’. There was not a trace of intruding abilities like [Invisibility], [Face Transformation], [See-Through], and [Hypnosis].
Ren Suo felt that there were certainly such abilities, just that they would surely not be made known to the public. It could even be a secret internally and those who possessed such abilities would have to keep it a secret. That was because such abilities were a threat to others, even greatly impacting Practitioners:
“Tch tch tch, that’s the guy who can make himself invisible…”
“Ah, that guy can see through things! Don’t face him directly and don’t face your back or sides at him either, just stay far away from him!”
“Well, because XXX is able to change his face, I suggest that all female washrooms should have additional iris verification measures…”
“Don’t look at him, don’t talk to him either, or you would be hypnotized by him!”
Compared to mere killing, such abilities that intruded other people’s privacy had a greater potential to cause panic.
Moreover, there were surveillance videos at all intersections in Lianjiang City. Rather than sneaking over secretly, it was better to head over openly. Ren Suo also figured that if he was strongly unwilling to appear on the screen, he may not be in the video which would be posted after his final game score was uploaded.
Of course, it would be too foolish of him to pin all of his hopes on the Mini Worlds game console, so Ren Suo prepared a reason for himself to ‘happen to come across the fleeing ghost stall’. After all, he was not the first normal person to eat at the fleeing ghost stall.
…
Upon returning home, Ren Suo did not need to eat breakfast and continued his quest in “Fleeing Ghosts in the Night”.
He looked at the list of cities and discovered that the [Degree of Concealment] of Mumbai and Hong Kong had dropped. Mumbai dropped to 39th place and Hong Kong dropped to 78th place.
If he set up the stall in the same city on numerous nights, his gains would surely drop over time. In other words, perhaps the most dangerous monsters in a city would visit the fleeing ghost stall at the earliest time possible, which was the first time the stall was set up in the city. After the most dangerous monsters were eliminated, only the weak pawns would be left.
However, comparing between Hong Kong and Mumbai, Ren Suo noticed that the last ‘customer’ he received in each city, which was the final boss of each night, seemed to be growing stronger.
It was not only that Ren Suo did not correctly season the garbage food, but also that the HP of the boss had clearly increased. Furthermore, the effects of the various negative buffs on the boss were also slightly less effective.
For example, when Ren Suo used the seasoning [Filth] on the first boss, whom he encountered in Hong Kong, the negative effect was ‘receive additional +10% damage for five turns’. However, when Ren Suo used the seasoning [Cleanliness] on the second boss, whom he encountered in Mumbai and who appeared dirty all over, the negative effect was instead ‘receive additional +8% damage for five turns’.
It was not that the bosses had become stronger, but that the bosses in cities with higher [Degree of Concealment] were slightly stronger by nature, much like how a second-grader in elementary school was more knowledgeable than a first-grader.
If Ren Suo could not figure out the weaknesses of the boss and target them precisely, it was almost certain that he would have to battle against the boss.
In fact, when he was fighting the Mumbai boss, the female stall owner was almost killed. He only barely managed to win the battle after he controlled the female stall owner to use [Combat Fighter (Partial)] and formed a clone to delay the battle while dealing double damage.
The strategy to clear the game was to reduce the number of battles triggered, in order for the female stall owner to battle the final customer with as much HP as possible. At the same time, he also had to ensure every ‘customer’ left in satisfaction, so that he could acquire sufficient rewards to enhance the strength of the stall owner.
As such, Ren Suo also decided to clear the cities from the bottom up. Otherwise, even if he managed to meet the final ‘customer’ in the city with the highest [Degree of Concealment], it was very likely that he would be crushed by that boss if he did not season the garbage food well. Hence, it was a better strategy to ‘level up’ steadily first.
Even if Ren Suo decided to attempt clearing the city with the highest [Degree of Concealment] while writing down the keywords for every ‘customer’, each attempt would take four hours. If he did not figure out the weaknesses of the boss correctly, he would have to restart, and it would take another four hours—simply too much time was required.
The city with the 8th highest [Degree of Concealment] was… New York.
Incidentally, in the [Degree of Concealment] ranking, Tianjing City in Xuan Nation was not ranked at the bottom but was ranked somewhere in the middle. That meant that not only were there no monsters out in the open in Tianjing City, there were also very few monsters lurking in the shadows.
That was a very rare case since none of the cities with a similar ranking to Tianjing City had a population of more than 1 million—there were over 20 million people in Tianjing City.
Ren Suo even wondered if Tianjing City was actually only suppressing rash half-demons, and that there could even be not a single true monster in Tianjing City.
“Is the Tianjing Countermeasure System that powerful?” Ren Suo thought to himself. At that juncture, he was instead reminded of the young man he saw through the space hole in “The Mage Under the World Tree”.
Ren Suo remembered him clearly because he used a high-resolution image of the Nine-tailed Fox as the wallpaper on his computer.
On the screen, night fell and the female stall owner could be seen pushing the mobile food cart into Central Park in Manhattan, amidst the concrete jungle.
New York had a resident population of approximately only 8 million, which was even lower than that of Hong Kong. However, the population density in certain areas was not any lower than that of large cities. Manhattan was one such example—skyscrapers surrounded the green of Central Park like a large barrier. In the darkness of the night, the towering buildings looked like giants overlooking the greenery on the ground.
The park was very big, and there were many homeless people sleeping on the benches. The female stall owner was almost completely silent as she passed by them and did not cause any alarm. Very quickly, she set up her stall in a secluded area deep within the dense forest.
Just as the female stall owner finished cleaning the kitchenware, the first ‘customer’ appeared.
The ‘customer’ was not a normal person. It looked like a half-demon who was incredibly fat, appearing thrice the width of the female stall owner.
Ren Suo felt that the clothes on its body were screaming ‘Ahhh! I’m about to burst’ in agony.
He felt that he was very experienced in dealing with such a ‘customer’, and it was also the first ‘customer’, so Ren Suo chose to extract the keywords by himself.
The ‘customer’s’ life was ordinary—he was a goods vehicle driver who was deeply affected by his obesity. No one liked him, he had no savings, and he could only obtain sufficient happiness by watching television series and eating fried chicken and drinking cola everyday.
However, he felt that he was living such a hard life, and yet he could not reap corresponding rewards. Consequently, his thoughts turned more and more extreme, and he wanted to drive his van into passers-by and kill them…
Such ‘customers’ could be found all around the world, and Ren Suo had also tended to several such people. Their desires were, fundamentally, to ‘be respected and understood by others’, ‘not be let down by the hardships I have experienced’, and ‘be given this one chance that I am missing to prove that I am not any worse than others’. As such, Ren Suo increased the proportion of the seasonings [Understanding], [Effort], and [Hope] in the ‘customer’s’ chocolate tart—it was a mystery how the fleeing ghost stall could whip up a chocolate tart.
However, as the ‘customer’ ate the tart, he started crying. Just as Ren Suo thought that he had appeased the ‘customer’, the ‘customer’ suddenly slammed the table and exclaimed: [It’s not sweet! It’s not sweet at all! I just want the sweetness of love, why can’t I taste it! Why!]
The fats on his body began to swell and burst apart, turning his upper body into that of a young and beautiful, naked, golden-haired girl. The ‘girl’ who was attached to him stared at the female stall owner with a beguiling yet lifeless gaze.
Ren Suo snorted—you only briefly mentioned that ‘no one likes’ you, how would I know that you are seeking love!
Just as Ren Suo thought that he was about to enter a battle, the ‘customer’s’ head was suddenly slammed into the chocolate tart, splattering it all over his face.
He slammed the table again in fury, then turned his head around to see who was so bold!
Then, the next second, his body shriveled.
The beautiful young ‘girl’ attached to his body also turned back into fats and fused into his body.
[Scram.]
Her voice was soft and delicate, completely pure.
The ‘customer’ towered like a mountain, while the presence in front of him was only one-tenth of his size. Yet, he was so scared that he quickly turned around and wanted to run away. However, the presence uttered “mmm”, and the ‘customer’ was so terrified that he hurriedly reached into the pocket of his trousers and handed a USB flash drive to the female stall owner. Then, he slipped away at a speed that was unlike his size.
The female stall owner took the USB flash drive, then looked at the new customer with her usual expression.
[What would you like to eat?]
The other party squatted on the table with its head tilted slightly to the side as it looked at the female stall owner. It did not respond, but it licked its paws with its nine tails swaying in the air.
Looking at the screen, Ren Suo almost wanted to use a hammer to smash the dimension barrier of the television screen. He wanted to carry it, then pat it and stroke it…
Indeed, the new customer looked exactly like one of the manifestations of the All-Devouring Spirit—
It was Little Nine-Tailed Fox!
Ever since Ren Suo discovered the huge benefits the yellow-haired teenager and his girlfriend gained from the Meal of Desires, he had been thinking of a way for him to eat the meal at the ‘fleeing ghost stall’.
He was not worried about when and where the stall would be set up—as long as he could confirm the location of the stall in the game, Ren Suo would simply head over every night until it appeared.
However, the problem was that Ren Suo had to find a reason for his actions.
Of course, Ren Suo could also dress differently when he headed over, but it was August and the weather was so hot that feces on the street was steaming. Even though it would be during the night, it was still not feasible to wear too many layers of clothing, or the police would certainly be suspicious of him. Who would wear such thick clothing in the middle of the night—was he a programmer who still had to work overtime while running a fever?
Ren Suo also thought of using face transformation abilities, but there were no such abilities in the Knowledge Web.
The abilities sold on the Knowledge Web all had low damage capability, and were mainly used for ‘protecting oneself’ and ‘assisting life’. There was not a trace of intruding abilities like [Invisibility], [Face Transformation], [See-Through], and [Hypnosis].
Ren Suo felt that there were certainly such abilities, just that they would surely not be made known to the public. It could even be a secret internally and those who possessed such abilities would have to keep it a secret. That was because such abilities were a threat to others, even greatly impacting Practitioners:
“Tch tch tch, that’s the guy who can make himself invisible…”
“Ah, that guy can see through things! Don’t face him directly and don’t face your back or sides at him either, just stay far away from him!”
“Well, because XXX is able to change his face, I suggest that all female washrooms should have additional iris verification measures…”
“Don’t look at him, don’t talk to him either, or you would be hypnotized by him!”
Compared to mere killing, such abilities that intruded other people’s privacy had a greater potential to cause panic.
Moreover, there were surveillance videos at all intersections in Lianjiang City. Rather than sneaking over secretly, it was better to head over openly. Ren Suo also figured that if he was strongly unwilling to appear on the screen, he may not be in the video which would be posted after his final game score was uploaded.
Of course, it would be too foolish of him to pin all of his hopes on the Mini Worlds game console, so Ren Suo prepared a reason for himself to ‘happen to come across the fleeing ghost stall’. After all, he was not the first normal person to eat at the fleeing ghost stall.
…
Upon returning home, Ren Suo did not need to eat breakfast and continued his quest in “Fleeing Ghosts in the Night”.
He looked at the list of cities and discovered that the [Degree of Concealment] of Mumbai and Hong Kong had dropped. Mumbai dropped to 39th place and Hong Kong dropped to 78th place.
If he set up the stall in the same city on numerous nights, his gains would surely drop over time. In other words, perhaps the most dangerous monsters in a city would visit the fleeing ghost stall at the earliest time possible, which was the first time the stall was set up in the city. After the most dangerous monsters were eliminated, only the weak pawns would be left.
However, comparing between Hong Kong and Mumbai, Ren Suo noticed that the last ‘customer’ he received in each city, which was the final boss of each night, seemed to be growing stronger.
It was not only that Ren Suo did not correctly season the garbage food, but also that the HP of the boss had clearly increased. Furthermore, the effects of the various negative buffs on the boss were also slightly less effective.
For example, when Ren Suo used the seasoning [Filth] on the first boss, whom he encountered in Hong Kong, the negative effect was ‘receive additional +10% damage for five turns’. However, when Ren Suo used the seasoning [Cleanliness] on the second boss, whom he encountered in Mumbai and who appeared dirty all over, the negative effect was instead ‘receive additional +8% damage for five turns’.
It was not that the bosses had become stronger, but that the bosses in cities with higher [Degree of Concealment] were slightly stronger by nature, much like how a second-grader in elementary school was more knowledgeable than a first-grader.
If Ren Suo could not figure out the weaknesses of the boss and target them precisely, it was almost certain that he would have to battle against the boss.
In fact, when he was fighting the Mumbai boss, the female stall owner was almost killed. He only barely managed to win the battle after he controlled the female stall owner to use [Combat Fighter (Partial)] and formed a clone to delay the battle while dealing double damage.
The strategy to clear the game was to reduce the number of battles triggered, in order for the female stall owner to battle the final customer with as much HP as possible. At the same time, he also had to ensure every ‘customer’ left in satisfaction, so that he could acquire sufficient rewards to enhance the strength of the stall owner.
As such, Ren Suo also decided to clear the cities from the bottom up. Otherwise, even if he managed to meet the final ‘customer’ in the city with the highest [Degree of Concealment], it was very likely that he would be crushed by that boss if he did not season the garbage food well. Hence, it was a better strategy to ‘level up’ steadily first.
Even if Ren Suo decided to attempt clearing the city with the highest [Degree of Concealment] while writing down the keywords for every ‘customer’, each attempt would take four hours. If he did not figure out the weaknesses of the boss correctly, he would have to restart, and it would take another four hours—simply too much time was required.
The city with the 8th highest [Degree of Concealment] was… New York.
Incidentally, in the [Degree of Concealment] ranking, Tianjing City in Xuan Nation was not ranked at the bottom but was ranked somewhere in the middle. That meant that not only were there no monsters out in the open in Tianjing City, there were also very few monsters lurking in the shadows.
That was a very rare case since none of the cities with a similar ranking to Tianjing City had a population of more than 1 million—there were over 20 million people in Tianjing City.
Ren Suo even wondered if Tianjing City was actually only suppressing rash half-demons, and that there could even be not a single true monster in Tianjing City.
“Is the Tianjing Countermeasure System that powerful?” Ren Suo thought to himself. At that juncture, he was instead reminded of the young man he saw through the space hole in “The Mage Under the World Tree”.
Ren Suo remembered him clearly because he used a high-resolution image of the Nine-tailed Fox as the wallpaper on his computer.
On the screen, night fell and the female stall owner could be seen pushing the mobile food cart into Central Park in Manhattan, amidst the concrete jungle.
New York had a resident population of approximately only 8 million, which was even lower than that of Hong Kong. However, the population density in certain areas was not any lower than that of large cities. Manhattan was one such example—skyscrapers surrounded the green of Central Park like a large barrier. In the darkness of the night, the towering buildings looked like giants overlooking the greenery on the ground.
The park was very big, and there were many homeless people sleeping on the benches. The female stall owner was almost completely silent as she passed by them and did not cause any alarm. Very quickly, she set up her stall in a secluded area deep within the dense forest.
Just as the female stall owner finished cleaning the kitchenware, the first ‘customer’ appeared.
The ‘customer’ was not a normal person. It looked like a half-demon who was incredibly fat, appearing thrice the width of the female stall owner.
Ren Suo felt that the clothes on its body were screaming ‘Ahhh! I’m about to burst’ in agony.
He felt that he was very experienced in dealing with such a ‘customer’, and it was also the first ‘customer’, so Ren Suo chose to extract the keywords by himself.
The ‘customer’s’ life was ordinary—he was a goods vehicle driver who was deeply affected by his obesity. No one liked him, he had no savings, and he could only obtain sufficient happiness by watching television series and eating fried chicken and drinking cola everyday.
However, he felt that he was living such a hard life, and yet he could not reap corresponding rewards. Consequently, his thoughts turned more and more extreme, and he wanted to drive his van into passers-by and kill them…
Such ‘customers’ could be found all around the world, and Ren Suo had also tended to several such people. Their desires were, fundamentally, to ‘be respected and understood by others’, ‘not be let down by the hardships I have experienced’, and ‘be given this one chance that I am missing to prove that I am not any worse than others’. As such, Ren Suo increased the proportion of the seasonings [Understanding], [Effort], and [Hope] in the ‘customer’s’ chocolate tart—it was a mystery how the fleeing ghost stall could whip up a chocolate tart.
However, as the ‘customer’ ate the tart, he started crying. Just as Ren Suo thought that he had appeased the ‘customer’, the ‘customer’ suddenly slammed the table and exclaimed: [It’s not sweet! It’s not sweet at all! I just want the sweetness of love, why can’t I taste it! Why!]
The fats on his body began to swell and burst apart, turning his upper body into that of a young and beautiful, naked, golden-haired girl. The ‘girl’ who was attached to him stared at the female stall owner with a beguiling yet lifeless gaze.
Ren Suo snorted—you only briefly mentioned that ‘no one likes’ you, how would I know that you are seeking love!
Just as Ren Suo thought that he was about to enter a battle, the ‘customer’s’ head was suddenly slammed into the chocolate tart, splattering it all over his face.
He slammed the table again in fury, then turned his head around to see who was so bold!
Then, the next second, his body shriveled.
The beautiful young ‘girl’ attached to his body also turned back into fats and fused into his body.
[Scram.]
Her voice was soft and delicate, completely pure.
The ‘customer’ towered like a mountain, while the presence in front of him was only one-tenth of his size. Yet, he was so scared that he quickly turned around and wanted to run away. However, the presence uttered “mmm”, and the ‘customer’ was so terrified that he hurriedly reached into the pocket of his trousers and handed a USB flash drive to the female stall owner. Then, he slipped away at a speed that was unlike his size.
The female stall owner took the USB flash drive, then looked at the new customer with her usual expression.
[What would you like to eat?]
The other party squatted on the table with its head tilted slightly to the side as it looked at the female stall owner. It did not respond, but it licked its paws with its nine tails swaying in the air.
Looking at the screen, Ren Suo almost wanted to use a hammer to smash the dimension barrier of the television screen. He wanted to carry it, then pat it and stroke it…
Indeed, the new customer looked exactly like one of the manifestations of the All-Devouring Spirit—
It was Little Nine-Tailed Fox!
